Milligan looks to buy seven parcels to jump-start Wall Street

By Robert Koch

Published
5:36 pm EDT, Friday, May 18, 2018

Wall Street neighborhood property owner Jason Milligan walks through the area Friday, May 18, 2018, after a move to close on the Fairfield County Bank Building at 67-69 Wall St. and placing $5 million in escrow to purchase five other nearby properties including 21, 23, 31, Isaac Street and 83 and 97 Wall Street in Norwalk, Conn. As part of his vision to revitalize Wall Street Milligan plans to maintain existing facades and street-level retail while building apartments above within existing buildings. less

Wall Street neighborhood property owner Jason Milligan walks through the area Friday, May 18, 2018, after a move to close on the Fairfield County Bank Building at 67-69 Wall St. and placing $5 million in escrow ... more

Wall Street neighborhood property owner Jason Milligan walks through the area Friday, May 18, 2018, after a move to close on the Fairfield County Bank Building at 67-69 Wall St. and placing $5 million in escrow to purchase five other nearby properties including 21, 23, 31, Isaac Street and 83 and 97 Wall Street in Norwalk, Conn. As part of his vision to revitalize Wall Street Milligan plans to maintain existing facades and street-level retail while building apartments above within existing buildings. less

Wall Street neighborhood property owner Jason Milligan walks through the area Friday, May 18, 2018, after a move to close on the Fairfield County Bank Building at 67-69 Wall St. and placing $5 million in escrow ... more

NORWALK — An owner of numerous Wall Street-area properties said Friday he’s under contract to buy the Fairfield County Bank buildings and five nearby properties on Wall and Isaac streets.

“I want to have the progress from the ground up on Wall Street as opposed to from the top down,” said Jason Milligan,” owner of Milligan Real Estate on nearby Belden Avenue and member of the Wall Street Neighborhood Association. “The state and the city should not be dictating what should be there. This is a different neighborhood. We need to take advice from the businesses and from the neighborhood.”

Fairfield County Bank President Dan Berta confirmed the pending transfer of the adjoined bank properties. He said the bank will remain as a tenant of 67 Wall St. and expand into the adjacent space.

“We are happy neighbor and member of the community down there and wanted to make sure we could work with a partner who could keep us on Wall Street,” Berta said. “Our intent — and this was key to the decision to partnering with Jason — is we will remain a tenant and, in fact, build out new space at 69 Wall St. and Jason is our new landlord. We’re selling him the building but we’re going to remain a tenant and lease back space.”

(Connecticut Public Television had planned to open a tech and innovation center at 69 Wall St. due to its location next to the refurbished Wall Street Theater but dropped that plan.)

Apartments but ‘not massive scale’

Milligan, counting the bank buildings at 67 and 69 Wall St. and five nearby properties, described the revitalization potential as great. “It’s a total of seven properties, which could be quite a bit of progress,” he said.

At issue for Milligan and others is the long-stalled redevelopment project known Wall Street Place.

Citibank now owns the former Isaac Street Parking Lot where developer POKO Partners halted work nearly two years ago on phase one of the project — 101 apartments — leaving a hulking unfinished building.

Milligan said his goal is not to take over phase one — although he believes it needs to be scaled down — but instead to clean up the mess left behind, reopen parking and get revitalization rolling quickly.

He said he signed a contract to purchase the bank property contingent upon zoning changes and placed $5.1 million in an escrow account to buy the properties at 21,23 and 31 Isaac St. as well as those at 83 and 97 Wall St.

The properties, currently home to mom-and-pop stores and various retailers, are located within the footprint of the unstarted second phase of Wall Street Place. Milligan said Citibank, although not the owner of those parcels, has until the end of May to exercise its right of first refusal to purchase them.

The properties are owned by ILSR Owners, LLC and collectively appraised at nearly $3.4 million. The bank properties at 67 at 69 Wall St. are valued at nearly $1.9 million, according to the Norwalk Tax Assessor’s Office.

Milligan said his first goal would be to paint and clean the various buildings and get parking opened back up for the public. Revitalization would entail building apartments above the bank and the other buildings.

“The area is calling for more apartments, more foot traffic — not massive scale, but tens of units of apartments at a time above these buildings,” Milligan said. “Keep the facades, keep the bank there. The apartments would be above that.”

Milligan said he would have no problem working with Citibank or the city, but added government must “get out of the way” to get things moving forward.

Rilling: city willing to talk

Mayor Harry Rilling said he just learned of Milligan’s intentions Friday and was willing to sit down and talk with him. Hearst Connecticut Media asked if the city is obligated to see the three-phase Wall Street Place project through to fruition as planned.

“Wall Street Place and all the other properties involved right now are privately owned properties,” Rilling said. “So we’re trying to work with the first phase of Wall Street Place to see if we can get that moving and we’ve been in discussions and we’ve had some real progress. Now we’d have to look at what Mr. Milligan is purchasing and see how that affects the rest of the Wall Street Place.”

Milligan and others are displeased that Citibank, the city and Norwalk Redevelopment Agency have left the public out of the bank’s effort to restart phase one under under a new developer. The city and agency are under a non-disclosure agreement regarding that effort. Rilling said the city and agency signed the agreement reluctantly.

In 2017, an inspection crew at the development site confirmed that Stamford-based real estate developer John McClutchy was exploring taking over phase one of Wall Street Place.

Milligan, looking forward, is calling for three main changes to get development rolling in the area: remove the requirement for on-site amenity space, remove the requirement for on-site parking, and change the definition of affordable housing.

“I plan to build affordable housing, which will be inexpensive, but I don’t want the government dictating,” Milligan said. “I don’t want it to be deed-restricted.”

In April 2016, Milligan received Norwalk Zoning Commission approval to build 69 apartments in the parking lot he owns at 11 Belden Ave. The approval angered staff and patrons of the Main Library, which lacked adequate parking. In January, Milligan reached an agreement with the city that opened the parking lot to the public and gives the city the option of purchasing the larger parcel at 11 Belden Ave.